Jerry McCoy, who is one of the best north Arkansas guides, especially for White River trout, will be at our swap meet on Saturday with all kinds of antique and modern fishing gear and antique lures. He is an expert on old fishing lures and old gear, and he buys a lot of those. He has written some great articles for my magazine, “The Lightnin’ Ridge outdoor journal. But he can tell you the value of old lures, reels, rods, creels, any kind of old time fishing equipment. He is a magnetic personality and you will enjoy talking to him, a man who has 60 years of fishing experience on the lakes and rives of Arkansas. I can’t wait to see him again, one of my favorite fishing partners.

That Swap meet is 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, the  March 9, at the Noble Hills Church Gymnasium about five miles or so north of Springfield on highway 13. It costs 10 dollars to get a table or two to sell your wares but if you are hard pressed I will pay it for you. I do that because I am speaking at 11 a.m. about how I almost became the head of the Fish and Wildlife Service during the Bill and Hillary Clinton presidential administration. Last time I did that, only four people showed up. This time I am hoping to have twice that many. The money goes to church youth to help them pay for a summer camp they want to go to. I will also be selling my autographed books, 12 of them, and individual copies of nearly 100 outdoor magazines I have published over the last 20 years.

If you have something to sell too, bring your own folding tables, no more than two, 6 or 8 footers. If you don’t have a table, I could rent you one for whatever you would be interested in paying for it perhaps a quarter! If you have and interest, call Steve Johnson, or me whose phone number is 417-414-3128. We have been assured that President Trump will visit if he doesn’t have anything else to do. And many other celebrities will be there!

If you want to come and only have one or two items, like an old-time shotgun or deer rifle or squirrel gun, you can leave it at my table with a price on it and I will sell it for you. I am an amazing salesman! It has been said of me that I could sell mushroom seeds to a garden center. I once sold spaghetti plants to Pizza Hut.

On a more serious note, I will have two interpretive trips this spring. One will be a float trip on the Piney River near Licking. The time will likely be early April whenever water conditions are right. I once was a National Park Service naturalist on the Buffalo River doing such float trips involving up to 40 people at a time. We stopped often to identify the trees and furbearers and birds, we seined fish, taught people how to fish with casting and spinning gear, how to paddle a boat or canoe, and had a big dinner on a shaded gravel bar with a fish fry as the big attraction. I hope to have several guides for those who need one… the main attraction will be 80 year old river guide Charlie Curran who guided fishermen on the Piney when I was born.

We will also have another trip for up to 15 people back into the wildest area of Truman Lake I know of. We will go there on my pontoon boats, have a mid-day fish fry, and hike into some timbered regions of the lake, then ride around just before sunset to see eagles and migrating spring birds, which should include Canadian loons. If you are interested, contact me to get on the list and we will notify you a week or so before the date we set. There is no charge for either trip.

My office phone is 417-777-5227. Write to me at P.O. Box 22 Bolivar, Mo. 65613. Read more on the computer at larrydablemontoutdoors, or email me…lightninridge47@gmail.com. There is no ‘g’ on the end of lightning.